Abbot Hall Art Gallery

The award-winning Abbot Hall Art Gallery is a Grade 1 listed building with a national reputation for showing world-class contemporary and historic works.

Conveniently located in the town centre, Abbot Hall enjoys a pretty riverside setting. Just a stone's throw from the leafy Abbot Hall Park and Kendal Parish Church, it makes for a fascinating and inspiring day out for all ages.

Collection details

Exhibition details are listed below, you may need to scroll down to see them all.

Exhibition (permanent)

The Great Picture Triptych, 1646

1 November 2014 — 1 November 2018 *on now

This monumental painting which is nearly 5 meters wide, presents the family history and accomplishments of Lady Anne Clifford using a combination of portraiture, text and symbolism.

The left panel of the triptych depicts Lady Anne Clifford at the age of fifteen, when she was disinherited. The inclusion of portraits and books highlight Lady Anne’s education and refined upbringing.

The central panel depicts Lady Anne’s parents, Margaret Russell and George Clifford, third Earl of Cumberland, with her older brothers who did not survive to adulthood. On the walls behind the family group hang portraits of Lady Anne’s four aunts. As Lady Anne was not born until 1590, she does not appear in the central panel as such, but Lady Margaret’s gesture hints that the daughter who would ultimately become the Clifford heir had already been conceived at the time of the original painting.

The right panel shows Lady Anne in late middle age, when she finally regained the Clifford estates. Portraits of Lady Anne’s two husbands hang behind her. The depiction of Lady Anne at fifty-six was used as the model for many subsequent portraits and is probably the only likeness in The Great Picture to have been painted from life.

The triptych is a composite work by a skilled copyist working from miniatures, portraits and whatever gowns and armour were still in Lady Anne’s possession. The piece has been attributed to Jan van Belcamp (1610-1653), a Dutch artist active in England who was a specialist in this genre.

Suitable for

Any age

Website

George Romney

1 November 2014 — 1 November 2018 *on now

On display in the Georgian interiors downstairs at Abbot Hall is a selection of works by George Romney (1734-1802), one of the greatest of all eighteenth-century portrait painters. Starting in the Dining Room, Romney’s early career in Kendal is described through paintings that show him developing his style and growing in confidence as an independent artist: from the beautiful colouration and awkward elegance of his early full length portraits, through to the experimental light effects of The Artist’s Brother James Holding a Candle (1761) and his grand Shakespearean ‘history’ painting, King Lear in the tempest tearing off his Robes (1762).

Suitable for

Any age

Website

Folk Art

1 March — 14 April 2018 *on now

The Lake District has a long history of communities making art, creating beautiful items, and learning new skills. This exhibition explores why people devote time and effort to making beautiful objects, and the unique and fascinating stories of their lives.

On display from the museum’s collection of over 40,000 items are objects made by miners, prisoners of war, and dozens of other anonymous people. Discover the reasons that people are drawn to craft, and see objects rarely displayed before. The exhibition also celebrates the sports, talents and achievements that the people of Cumbria have devoted themselves to.

Suitable for

Family friendly

Where

Museum of Lakeland Life & IndustryKirklandKendalCumbriaLA9 5AL

Admission

£5.50 / £5.00 without donation. Free for Friends, students and children.

Website

Claude Monet, Haystacks: Snow Effect

See a masterpiece by one of the world’s most famous painters in Kendal. Claude Monet’s Haystacks: Snow Effect, will be displayed at Abbot Hall Art Gallery from Friday 12 January until 28 April.

The painting, dated 1891, is from a series of work widely regarded as among Monet’s best and is loaned from the National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh. It is believed to be the very first time that a Monet has been on display in Cumbria and cements Abbot Hall’s commitment to show work by iconic international artists.

Monet, a founder of French impressionist painting, produced over 30 haystacks paintings. He worked at different times of day and season to capture the effect changing light had on their form.

The haystacks in this painting stood in a field to the west of Monet’s house in Giverney, France, where his famous water lily gardens were situated. In autumn and the relatively mild winter of 1890, Monet persuaded the local farmer to leave the stacks in his field so he could make a series of paintings. In Haystacks: Snow Effect the haystacks are almost reduced to shadow in the glowing winter light.

There are 25 paintings from Monet’s Haystacks series held at galleries around the globe including Tokyo, Los Angeles, Chicago, Paris and now Kendal. This is your chance to see a Monet masterpiece in Cumbria.

Admission

Website

Tracing the Landscape: Cumbrian Farm Women

13 March — 9 June 2018 *on now

Artist Patricia MacKinnon-Day was born in Glasgow. She studied Fine Art at Liverpool School of Art before completing an MA at the Royal College of Art, London.

Patricia MacKinnon-Day has created a series of exhibitions and site-intervention projects both nationally and internationally. Her artistic process involves excavating and investigating layers of a place over a period of time. In collaboration with five Cumbrian farm women, MacKinnon-Day has developed a new multi-media art installation at Abbot Hall Art Gallery that explores Cumbrian communities.

Some historians have acknowledged the contribution made by wives of farmers in agrarian history. Until now no artist has attempted to examine in detail the lives of these women from their own perspective and to make that experience visible to a wider audience.

Website

Our website for what's on, the cafe, information for your visit and more.

E-mail

Telephone

01539 722464

All information is drawn from or provided by the venues themselves and every effort is made to ensure it is correct. Please remember to double check opening hours with the venue concerned before making a special visit.

A gallery and outdoor exhibition of Lynn Chadwick's works in Cumbria - the first retrospective of the influential sculptor since his death in 2004 - features ominous hybrid beasts among more than 50 creations.